While current antidepressant drugs are effective treatments of depression and anxiety symptoms in a number of psychiatric disorders, a large fraction of patients only show partial remission of symptoms or do not respond at all (Trivedi et al., Am J Psychiatry. January 2006; 163(1):28-40). This is likely due to the fact that these drugs do not target the inherent pathophysio logic disturbances leading to the clinical condition. A number of antidepressant strategies derived from both animal as well as human studies have been tested, but so far with little success. One of these approaches is the use of corticotropin releasing hormone receptor type 1 (CRHR1) and/or V1B antagonists. Increased activity or concentrations of its ligand CRH in the brain or the cerebrospinal fluid have been shown to be associated with depression and anxiety in humans (Nemeroff et al., Arch Gen Psychiatry. June 1988; 45(6):577-579; Nemeroff et al., Science. Dec. 14, 1984; 226(4680):1342-1344; Purba et al., Arch Gen Psychiatry. February 1996; 53(2):137-143; Carpenter et al., Neuropsycho-pharmacology. April 2004; 29(4):777-784), primates (Coplan et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. Feb. 20, 1996; 93(4):1619-1623; Sanchez et al., Dev Psychopathol. Summer 2001; 13(3):419-449) and rodents (Muller et al., Nat Neurosci. October 2003; 6(10):1100-1107; Timpl et al., Nat Genet. June 1998; 19(2):162-166). In addition, a wealth of data ranging from molecular studies in experimental animals to open label studies in human patients indicate that CRHR1 and/or V1B antagonists are a promising approach in the treatment of depression and anxiety (Ising et al., Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. December 2007; 15(6):519-528; Holsboer F., CNS Spectr. July 2001; 6(7):590-594; Paez-Pereda et al.; Expert Opin Investig Drugs. April; 20(4):519-535). However, so far all randomized clinical trials have failed to demonstrate the superiority of these drugs to placebo (Coric et al., Depress Anxiety. May 2010; 27(5):417-425; Binneman et al., Am J Psychiatry. May 2008; 165(5):617-620).
Hence, there is still a need for methods for predicting a treatment response to CRHR1 and/or V1B antagonists as well as to other antidepressant and/or anxiolytic drugs effective in the treatment of depressive symptoms and/or anxiety symptoms in a number of psychiatric disorders.